Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/254

226 this logical dilemma: "So general has been the im- pression that the Courts possess this great power, now denied, that several honorable members of this House have censured the Judges for not declaring that the Sedition Act was imconstitutional. K they had power to do so respecting that Act, why deny them the power as to other Acts ? '* Gouvemeur Morris also pointed out that the Court had already, in the case of the invaUd pensioners and in the carriage tax case, passed on the vaUdity of Acts of Congress; and he showed that Congress itself had, in the former case, expressly sub- mitted the question of validity to the Court. "There was a time when the American Legislature submitted their Acts to judicial decision. At that time, Washing- ton presided. Will it be said that the Administration was then too humble?'* After a long debate, the Resolution was lost by a vote of five to thirteen. In the House, a similar Resolution that " provision ought to be made by law for submitting to judicial decision*' the rights of the Judges had been lost, by a vote of thirty-five to fifty-seven, after a debate on January 27, 1803. "The memorial of the Circuit Judges has been dismissed without much ceremony by those who, in feeling power, appear to forget there are such princi- ples as right and wrong,'' said a leading FederaUst newspaper.^ »

This refusal of Congress to take any action towards judicial determination of the rights of the Circuit Judges seemed to render it certain that through private litigation the question would be presented for the final determination of the Court. But as the case of Marhury

^Columbian Ceniinel, Feb. 16, 1803. The Amm4xm Daily AdperHser (Phil.)» Feb. 18, 1803, quoted a long editorial from the New York Evening Poet in whic^ it was said : ''President Jefferson and the majorities in the House of Congress dare not submit the claim of the Circuit Judges for their compensation to judicial examination and decasion*"